Patriot Coal Corporation (fka PCXCQ)

[marayatano]

This is why the Unions deserve NOTHING . . .

No matter how the Judge rules, the Unions controls the destiny of Patriot Coal . . .

Unions don't like the ruling... Unions STRIKE and Patriot goes into liquidation.

Unions win and Patriot's motion is denied, then Patriot will eventually run out of cash and then forced into liquidation.

I just love how the Union thinks . . . cough cough, of themselves...

If Patriot's motion is granted, hopefully they will take a page from Hostess' playbook and hire non-Union employees at sites that are reopened.

imo

Patriot says cuts needed to avoid liquidation
10 hours 22 minutes ago


No matter how a judge rules on Patriot Coal Corp’s request to cut union wages and benefits, the coal producer and employees could face a grim future, the company and the United Mine Workers of America told a judge overseeing Patriot’s bankruptcy.

UMWA attorney Fred Perillo said that approval of Patriot’s motion could lead to a crippling strike that would likely force the company into liquidation.

And if Patriot’s motion is rejected, it is a “mathematical certainty” that the company will run out of cash early next year and be forced to sell off its mines and lay off 4,000 employees, said Benjamin Kaminetzky, a lawyer representing the company.

The doomsday scenarios featured prominently during Friday’s closing arguments in a week-long hearing in US Bankruptcy Court.

Judge Kathy A. Surratt-States didn’t immediately issue a ruling.

The stakes are huge whatever the outcome, and will go a long way toward determining the future of the company and thousands of employees and retirees.

Patriot, which filed for Chapter 11 protection in July citing depressed coal markets and unsustainable legacy liabilities, says it has reduced expenses to the maximum extent elsewhere and needs $150 million in annual savings from the union to survive.

The UMWA argues that Patriot’s proposal is rooted in anti-union ideology. It claims the company could find additional savings elsewhere, that its business plan is based on pessimistic coal market forecasts, and that union employees and retirees have been asked to shoulder a disproportionate share of the proposed cost cuts.

Source - www.stltoday.com

http://www.coalguru.com/north_america/patriot_says_cuts_needed_to_avoid_liquidation/9395